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The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences EpSBS ISSN: 2357-1330 https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.12.04.53 SCTCMG 2019 International Scientific Conference «Social and Cultural Transformations in the Context of Modern Globalism» ETHNO-CULTURAL SPECIFICITY OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY USE BY INDIGENOUS AND NOMADIC PEOPLES Sergey Bereznitsky (a)* *Corresponding author (a) Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) Russian Academy of Sciences Saint-Petersburg, Russia, [email protected], +79219317256 Abstract Indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East for centuries, on the basis of their unique culture, adapted to the environment, creating man-made landscapes, extracted from nature all energy resources, necessary for life. For this they used an original set of tools, land and water means of transport, domestic animals, that are maximum adapted to the environment of the North, mountain taiga, tundra, sea coast and bays, mountain rivers and lakes. Forms of obtaining and consuming the energy had various specific features and practical sense. They also depended on ethnic contacts with neighbouring, similar in culture, peoples, and nomadic tribes, having other ethno-cultural markers and aspirations, which have influenced the northern culture since the seventeenth century. Research of these phenomena is possible based on interdisciplinary methodological grounds, developed by Russian and foreign scientists in the area of ethnography, ethnic history, ethnic ecology, ethnic geography, ethno-psychology, cultural studies, physical, cultural and social anthropology. The integrating role in these directions, researching the mechanism of using natural resources in traditional and modern economic activities of certain local northern communities can belong to the concept by Y. Cohen, considering culture in general as adaptation. However, with the help of this concept it is possible to reveal the ethnic specificity of using the natural environment as a source of energy resources by ethnic groups, degree of impact made by aboriginal and European cultures on the environment, traditions of rational use of natural resources, historical factors of forming and functioning of ethnic ecosystems. © 2019 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.UK Keywords: Indigenous, nomadic, peoples, adaptation mechanisms, culture. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.12.04.53 Corresponding Author: Sergey Bereznitsky Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference eISSN: 2357-1330 1. Introduction In Siberia, North and Far East indigenous peoples live for centuries, comprising Samoyed, Ugrian, Paleo-Siberian, Tungusic and other ethnic linguistic communities. Even nowadays they mostly preserve the aspects of primitive household and cultural type, and continue to herd reindeer, go fishing, hunting terricole animals and birds, sea-hunting, picking medicinal herbs and edible plants, plants for technical purposes, other products of taiga and sea, necessary for survival in harsh climate. The overwhelming part of the energy production and consumption process in their lifestyle is related with environment and its natural resources. In the XVII-XVIII centuries in northern regions the bearers of European agricultural culture settled down. The ethno-cultural specific features of extracting the energy by the indigenous peoples and settlers are grounded in the difference in the history of given ethnic groups as a whole, in the intensity of inter-ethnic contacts, exchange of cultural values, specificity of basic forms of economic activity, household items, mentality (Alekseeva, 2011; Anderson, Kvie, Davydov, & Roed, 2017; Arsen’ev, 2007; Bereznitsky, 1998; Berkes, 1993; Berkes, Colding, & Folke, 2000; Bogoslovskaya, 2003; Borodulina, 2018; Golovnyov, Lyozova, Abramov, Belorussova, & Babenkova, 2014; Davydov, 2017, 2018; Davydova, 2018; D’yachenko, 2005; Hastrup, 2009; Hill & Gaddy, 2003; Khlinovskaya-Rockhill & Sidorova, 2018; Krupnik, 1989; Landscape ethnoecology: concepts of biotic and physical space, 2012; Lavrillier & Gabyshev, 2017; Mel’nikov & Fedorov, 2018; Mosolov & Fil’, 2010; Nuykina, 2011; Ong & Ward, 2005; Pivneva, 2010; Sirina, 2012; Ssorin-Chaikov, 2003; Terekhina, 2018; Willerslev, 2007). 2. Problem Statement It seems relevant to reveal the ethnic and cultural features of the energy production and consumption process by indigenous and nomadic tribes in the North, Siberia and Far East. Research is based on the concepts, put forward by Russian and foreign scientists in the area of ethno-cultural adaptive experience. The American psychologist and cultural anthropologist Cohen (1968, 1974) is widely known by his studies in the sphere of adaptation aspects of culture, strategy of human adaptation, characteristics of social models as means to obtain from the environment the maximum energy. He defines culture as a way, an essential tool of adaptation of a man to environment, through which human society can extract and absorb the energy of the world. Adaptation represents a complex process, via which a man effectively uses the energy potential of his or her habitat for productive purposes. The institutes of human culture are rooted in the mechanism, which regulates the complex process of transforming the energy potential of the environment into various food for a human community. Naturally, every culture has its own characteristics of this process. There are ethno-cultural specific features of the process in communities of indigenous peoples in the North, Siberia and Far East: a specific model of obtaining the vital energy from environment within traditional and modern culture in the process of adaptation to the world. The ethno-cultural specificity of getting food is also related with the differences of adaptation process of a given ethic group, its level of development, economic-cultural type, material and spiritual culture, degree of culture transformation, resulting from ethnic contacts with neighbouring peoples, as well as owing to the European culture impact. The strategy of producing energy enables each given ethnic community not only to survive in severe climate or when surrounded by hostile tribes but reproduce the essential ethic markers. After establishing and 387 https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.12.04.53 Corresponding Author: Sergey Bereznitsky Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference eISSN: 2357-1330 summarizing the maximum possible number of concrete examples when indigenous and nomadic ethnic groups adapted via extracting energy in northern regions, they are compared to establsih their ethno-cultural differences. Energy, necessary for human life, is obtained from the products of hunting terricole and marine wildlife, picking plants and herbs, herding domestic animals. The Russian scientist Bahta (1960) highlights a few basic characteristics of economic activity: degree of nomadism, technologies of conserving products, seasonality of work processes. The most important is said to be the mechanism of accumulating the food for future use as a result of freezing, sun-drying, smoking, pickling and other methods. These methods also depend on the ethno-cultural markers and historical conditions. 3. Research Questions Comparison of two major models of obtaining and consuming the energy in the life-support system: traditional, related with the process of adapting to the environment and borrowed from nomadic tribes as new forms of energy, transport, accommodation, set of tools, used in hunting methods. 4. Purpose of the Study Establishing the ethno-cultural special features of adaptation mechanism of extracting the energy from the environment by indigenous and nomadic peoples of northern regions. 5. Research Methods To solve the problem the methods of field ethnography are applied: observation, interviewing informants, anthropological experiment, survey, documentation of ethnographic materials in paper and electronic media. The theoretical methods include comparative-historical investigation of specific ethnic history and culture of indigenous and nomadic tribes of northern regions in Russia, based on the studies of stage phenomenon, types of their cultures, processes of cultural mutual influence; interpretation of spiritual aspects of culture and mentality; structural-functional analysis of ethno-cultural complexes and mechanisms of adaptation to natural and social environment. 6. Findings Traditional industry of indigenous peoples of the North represents a complex set of popular knowledge about behaviours of marine and taiga animals, their migration routes, ways of tracking and hunting, methods to observe the weather, hunting equipment and transport, philosophy of using the energy of domestic animals. In the XVII-XVIII centuries the technology of using the energy of transport animals: deer and dogs by indigenous and nomadic ethnic groups remained practically the same. Transformation of the hunting culture of indigenous peoples of the North was historically caused by the impact of neighbouring hunting and reindeer herding ethnic tribes. In particular, the Chukchi and Yakuts drove away the Koryaks and Yukaghirs, took away their reindeer and pastures, and
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